“In 20 years’ time there will be no debate about public or private education as new structures that find a balance between the two are developed,” said George Haddad, Director of Higher Education at UNESCO speaking at a press conference at the World Higher Education Conference.

Private higher education was just one of the themes explored in the press conference which saw the launch of key reports including the annual Global Education Digest produced by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) that examines trends in student mobility; the UNESCO report, A New Dynamic: Private Higher Education and a World Bank report, The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities.

Opening the press conference Assistant-Director General for Education at UNESCO Nicholas Burnett said there had been a rapid acceleration of trends highlighted at the first world conference on higher education 11 years ago.

This has included rising demand with a 53 per cent increase in enrolment worldwide as well as greater diversification of providers, many a mixture of public and private that offer degree and non-degree subjects. Furthermore, as

s a result of globalization 20 per cent of students now spend some time studying in a country other than their own.

While stressing the importance of higher education, Mr Burnett spoke more broadly about ensuring learning opportunities for all.

“The days of ‘either/or’ are over. It is essential that basic education be extended to everyone but also the case that countries cannot develop without viable higher education systems,” said Mr Burnett.

He underlined the strategic role of higher education to tackle global issues such as the recession, health, water and food security. “Higher education is an essential part of the global response to the economic crisis not only to meet demand but to offset cuts in very poor countries,” he said.

He noted that the impact of the worst recession in 80 years was being most strongly felt in low-income countries which were suffering cuts in higher education spending. Referring to past financial crises, he explained that economic crises often led to increased demand for higher education in middle-income countries as those who couldn’t find work prolonged their studies or those who had lost jobs went back to college.

Hendrik van der Pol, Director of UIS presented a global view of student mobility. He said that in 2007 over 2.8 million students enrolled in higher educational institutions outside their country of origin; an increase of 53 per cent since 1999.

The digest, which is based on an annual survey of data provided by member states, shows that the biggest growth in demand for higher education is in East Asia and the Pacific and driven by the development of China which has the greatest number of students abroad at around 421,000.

It shows students are expanding their range of destinations with fewer going to the US and more choosing to study in Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and South Africa. Top host countries now include China, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea. The report also notes  that students are moving more within their region of origin and that more mobile students choose to study business administration, science, engineering and humanities than local students who prefer social sciences, health and welfare and education. 

Jamil Salmi, Tertiary Education Coordinator in the World Bank’s Human Development Network and author of The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities said the key elements to make a world class university were a concentration of talent, an abundance of resources and favourable governance. American universities, for example, spend three times more per student than European ones and had large endowments. World-class universities have a large share of international faculty (Harvard 30%; Oxford 36%). He said world class universities were not subject to public or civil service rules but self-standing and self-governing.  

N.V. Varghese, co-author of A New Dynamic: Private Higher Education, said there was huge growth in private higher education institutes to the point that they now accounted for 30 per cent of global enrolment. In Japan, Korea, the Philippines and India 75 – 80 per cent of higher education institutes were private with the fastest rate of growth at 30 per cent in CIS countries. The slowest growth was in Western Europe which still relied on public institutes. He noted that the cost per student in private higher education can be lower than in public institutions, in prat because the former rely on part-time teachers.

“Private sector higher education can be a reliable partner with social responsibility if well regulated,” he said. “The State exchequer doesn’t always have to pay. But students need to be protected through a regulatory framework.”

Related Links

The 2009 Global Education Digest (GED)